President Buhari’s tremendous achivements in the financial Sector in 2022
By Matthew Denis
The Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded drastic achievements during the 2022 fiscal year under the stewardship of the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed.
The recent approval of the Finance Bill 2022 by Federal Executive Council (FEC) which was immediately transmitted to the National Assembly and was passed has a robust diets towards enhancing financial activities in the country.
The Minister had disclosed that the proposed Finance Bill 2022 is anchored on five fundamental policy drivers, including Tax Equity; Climate Change; Job Creation/Economic Growth; Tax Incentives Reform and Revenue Generation/Tax Administration. Other areas included Chargeable Assets; exclusion of Losses and Replacement of Business Assets. This is a good step along the best direction to meet up with some financial obligations in the future.
Also, a total of N5.03 trillion plus an additional $3.4 billion has been released to states by the Federal Government over the Muhammadu Buhari administration to the State Government.
The Minister of Finance had said the support covers the 13 per cent Derivation Refund to oil producing states, refund for construction of federal roads, ecological support, support from the Development of Natural Resources Fund, Paris Club refunds, support from the Stabilisation Fund, COVID intervention, amongst others in this year.
Talking about the nation’s borrowing plans, Mrs Ahmed explained that the nation has ensured that the debt facilities are sustainable.
“Our borrowings have been practical, sustainable and guided by our Debt Management Strategy. Our debt is 33 per cent of the GDP, which is still the lowest on the African Continent,” she said.
“We don’t have any need to restructure our debt because debt management is on the first line charge and we have not defaulted. We have a projection of meeting our debt through short and medium term strategies. We are comfortable in our ability to meet our debt.”
Government has ensured full implementation of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) by all MDAs, including Educational and Security Agencies, noting that a total of 723 MDAs have been enrolled into the IPPIS with an outstanding 5 MDAs.
The Government through Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has disbursed N528.4 billion and supported a total of 233,974 micro and small businesses across the country.
In order to eradicate the Naira note hoarding and curb corruption, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele has introduced the redesign of the Naira currencies which the circulation of the new notes had kickstarted since December 15th, 2022 to force Nigerians to return the old Naira notes into the banking system, this feats has set a record in the current administration to battle against the Naira currencies hoarders as it will equally assist in making the Naira currencies to appreciate against the dollar.
The CBN has equally intervened in the Aviation Sector by releasing the trapped funds. The bank in August resolved to release $265 million to the airlines; $110 million on the spot and the rest in 60 days. This made the foreign airlines withdrew their threat of stopping Operations in Nigeria. The CBN has assisted the Bureau De Change Operators in introducing good policies during the year in the forex market to maintain the status of Naira against the dollar.
In the aspect of Revenue Generation, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) under the leadership of the Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami has generated a whopping total revenue of N7.5 trillion between January to September, 2022.
The Non-oil taxes accounted for N4.3trillion while petroleum profits tax accounted for N3.1 trillion. It is clear that the reforms undertaken since 2020 have started yielding the desired results. The FIRS was expected to generate more billions of Naira before the year runs out.
In the banking sector, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has played a key role in 2022 to ensure that the Money Deposit Banks operates in a very friendly environment.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive officer of NDIC, Mr. Bello Hassan was able to recovered depositors’ N8.3billion from their banks and resolved 248 complaints between January to November, 2022.
The Corporation has also provided deposit insurance protection to depositors of 33 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) which are made up of 24 Commercial Banks, Six Merchant Banks, Three Non-Interest Banks (NIBs) and 882 Microfinance Banks (MFBs).Others are 34 Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs), three Payment Service Banks (PSBs), and 29 Mobile Money Schemes. This measures is targeted at strengthening the banking sector and to ensure customers confidence.
In the area of external and Internal debts, the Debt Management Office under the effective leadership of Mrs. Patience Oniha stated that the total debt as at September 2022 stood at N44.06 trillion comprising of total Domestic and External Debt stock of the Federal Government of Nigeria and all states including Federal capital Territory.
The Federal Government through Debt Management Office (DMO) has embarked on hundreds projects during the 2022 fiscal year. one of them was the conclusion of the Issuance of N100 billion Sovereign Al ’Ijarah Sukuk. The Offer for N100 billion opened on November 21, 2022 and was supported by wide public sensitization to encourage subscription from diverse investors, particularly the retail investors.
The initial offer size of N100 billion was upsized to N130 billion due to the over 165 per cent subscription level. The Sukuk was issued at a Rental Rate of 15.64 per cent per annum.
This brings the total Sovereign Sukuk Issuance to N742.557 billion as at date. These were some of the several programmes that the Buhari’s Government executed especially Infrastructures.
The Afreximbank also announced in January 2022 that it will assist NNPC Limited to raise $5 billion financing to support investments in Nigeria’s upstream industry, and facilitate expanded energy supply. Afrexim also disclosed plans to underwrite $1 billion of the total planned debt.
